Disneyland News: Restaurants & Resort Reopening, AP Program Returning This Year
We’re back with a round-up of the latest post-reopening news from Disneyland and Disney California Adventure, with a range of interesting stories including the return of resorts, restaurants, and Annual Passes.
Let’s start with the latest news. Disneyland Resort just announced that Paradise Pier Hotel will reopen and welcome back guests starting June 15, 2021, with limited capacity. Guests can book room reservations starting May 6, 2021 to “make Disney’s Paradise Pier Hotel their perfect summer destination!” (Disney’s words, not mine.) Paradise Pier Hotel ranks #39 in my Anaheim Hotel Reviews. Perfect is not a word I’d use to describe it.
What’s most interesting to me about this announcement is that Paradise Pier Hotel is reopening “with limited capacity.” To my knowledge, this is the first time Disney has used such verbiage for hotels at Walt Disney World or Disneyland Resort. There’s no reason to believe occupancy elsewhere has been dictated by anything other than demand.
The same could be true here, and the reduced capacity could be a reflection of the expectation that the hotel isn’t going to come close to selling out, so why not pitch it as a perk? (Disneyland could certainly surmise as much from Grand Californian occupancy numbers.) It’s also possible that bookings will be limited.
Disneyland has further announced that as part of the phased reopening, Disney’s Paradise Pier Hotel will not have restaurants initially. However, hotel guests may visit any of the nearby dining outlets at the Grand Californian, such as GCH Craftsman Bar & Grill, Hearthstone Lounge, Storytellers Café, and Napa Rose. Plus, everything at Downtown Disney.
We’ve said this many times, but avoid Paradise Pier Hotel. If you’re booking a trip to Disneyland and want to stay on-site, upgrade to the Grand Californian. If that’s out of your price range, “downgrade” and stay in a significantly cheaper and nicer off-site option. Seriously, there are hundreds if not thousands of better ways to use your vacation budget at Disneyland Resort.
Speaking of which, Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa is reopening popular dining locations Napa Rose and Storytellers Cafe for guests to enjoy while staying at the Disneyland Resort. Additionally, the hotel’s private entrance into Disney California Adventure will return on May 28, 2021.
Beginning that same date, guests will be able to enjoy Napa Rose for in-person dinner. Known for its award-winning wine list, exemplary service and delectable dining, Napa Rose will feature both the prix fixe Vintner Menu and a la carte selections, where guests can savor wine country cuisine featuring dishes that honor California’s rich culinary bounty, artisan farmers, and world-famous wine makers. Napa Rose is absolutely amazing–a highly recommended restaurant. If you’re looking for ways to splurge, it’s a far better option than…oh I don’t know…a night at Paradise Pier Hotel.
In the near future, Disneyland Resort guests will also be able to enjoy hearty home-style favorites while dining at Storytellers Café, offering three-course meals for breakfast and dinner. Whether you’re hungry for an American Wagyu Burger or craving a classic Mickey Waffle, there’s something for everyone’s taste buds!
Dining reservations are recommended and will be available for booking at a later date. Mickey’s Tales of Adventure Breakfast Buffet (the restaurant’s character breakfast) will not be featured at this time. We also think Storytellers is an underrated restaurant at Disneyland Resort. We dined there shortly before the parks closed and didn’t get around to reviewing it, but our experience was solid. A few meals here would also be a better way to blow your budget than Paradise Pier Hotel.
Disney concludes this announcement with a bunch of boilerplate reminders about needing both a valid ticket and theme park reservation for the same day and same park to enter the park they want to visit, health safety protocol, and everything being limited and subject to availability.
They also state that only California residents may visit the parks at this time. This is stated elsewhere on Disneyland.com, usually with “per state guidelines.” That’s now inaccurate, and has been for a couple of weeks. Per current state guidelines, “fully vaccinated persons from out of state may visit or attend activities or events that are restricted to in-state visitors.” California has confirmed this applies to theme parks.
While Disney can choose to restrict attendance to residents if they so desire, that would be better accomplished by not mentioning the state’s guidance at this point. In fact, one might construe the “per state guidelines” note on Disneyland.com as incorporating by reference the vaccinated exception of the actual state guidelines. That’s my interpretation, but we won’t be acting on that because “no one else thinks like that” (or so I’m told).
The “per state guidelines” part also simply might be outdated info. Or it could be deliberately ambiguous. Or Disney could still be working out how to comply with California’s new guidance. Universal Studios Hollywood began allowing vaccinated out of state visitors last week. Knott’s Berry Farm is also still limited to in-state visitors.
In other dining news, the Disneyland Legacy Passholders social media accounts revealed that starting May 20, 2021, Alfresco Tasting Terrace reopens just for ex-APs. This was previously a passholder lounge, and it literally became more popular once it was “exclusive.” (Seriously, it was often empty when open to everyone!) Smart move on Disney’s part once again turning it into a special perk.
Additionally, Blue Bayou Restaurant will reopen in the very near future with alcohol. No more specific timeline than that, but we wouldn’t be surprised if it doesn’t happen until Orange County makes the yellow tier (that’s still at least 2 weeks away) or California fully reopens on June 15, 2021. While I think Blue Bayou Restaurant is slightly overrated, it’s a “rite of passage” restaurant, and unequivocally a better use of vacation funds than Paradise Pier Hotel.
Finally, Disneyland President Ken Potrock recently joined the official D23 Inside Disney podcast to discuss a range of topics related to the reopening of Disneyland. He spoke about how Disneyland’s Annual Passholder program was ended out of concern that demand by a million-plus APs could overwhelm the parks once they reopen following the yearlong closure. (This podcast is free…but still better than Paradise Pier Hotel.)
This is unsurprising. Even prior to the cancellation of Annual Passes, we discussed the logistical nightmare California’s local fanbase would present in a capacity constrained environment. Tokyo Disney Resort offered a sneak peek of this, as those two parks did not end their AP program before reopening. Instead, Tokyo Disney did an AP lottery process first that regularly crashed their website and shut out the vast majority of Annual Passholders we know there. That was an unmitigated disaster, so OLC moved to across-the-board cancellations.
As such, Disneyland cancelling the AP program was a necessary temporary measure, but unsustainable in the long-term simply by virtue of Disneyland Resort’s visitor demographics and local expectations. While Disneyland has increasingly appealed to West Coast and international tourists, it’s still not a bona fide ‘destination resort’ like its Florida counterpart.
This is now borne out by park reservation availability–very few dates are totally sold out, and that’s with Disneyland operating at less than 25% of full capacity. (Under California rules, the parks are capped at that number. We’ve heard credible rumors that Disney has further limited that to 10-15% for the initial reopening period.)
Disneyland not totally selling out less than 25% of full capacity after a year-long closure doesn’t exactly paint a picture of strong pent-up demand. At least, not among Californians for regular tickets at regular price points. This alone suggests some version of Annual Passes, or at least multi-day Southern California resident ticket deals, are not too far away.
“We thought this was a great opportunity for us to reimagine the annual pass program that wasn’t just built on the last couple of decades, but was built on how our guests and our fans want to use the parks,” Potrock said on the D23 podcast.
“We’re working on that right now and we will clearly be launching something before the end of the year.”
Given all of the above, this is also unsurprising, but it’s still good to have official confirmation. Disneyland has repeatedly called what’s on the horizon a “membership program” rather than an Annual Passholder program. Our expectation is that this is largely semantics, or possibly a result of it continuing indefinitely until cancelled. (A certain subscription service has treated the Walt Disney Company well in the last year!) While surveys have suggested Disney has a lot of big, elaborate ideas for the membership program, that’s common of Disney surveys.
The most logical approach for the membership program is an extension of the Disney Flex Pass, which offered both open admission and reservation-only days. That’s a great system for managing attendance, and each higher tier could simply have more open admission and fewer reservation-only days and/or more perks like parking. No reason to unnecessarily complicate things when the blueprint to Disneyland’s AP problem was already developed a couple of years ago. Don’t overthink things–just expand that.
Planning a Southern California vacation? For park admission deals, read Tips for Saving Money on Disneyland Tickets. Learn about on-site and off-site hotels in our Anaheim Hotel Reviews & Rankings. For where to eat, check out our Disneyland Restaurant Reviews. For unique ideas of things that’ll improve your trip, check out What to Pack for Disney. For comprehensive advice, consult our Disneyland Vacation Planning Guide. Finally, for guides beyond Disney, check out our Southern California Itineraries for day trips to Los Angeles, Laguna Beach, and tons of other places!
Your Thoughts
What do you think of this Disneyland and DCA news? Think our take on Paradise Pier Hotel is too harsh, or totally fair? Excited for the return of more dining in the Grand Californian? Thoughts on Disneyland’s AP or membership program? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? Any questions? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
We are heading to Disneyland in mid June and we’re planning on staying at Holiday Inn on Manchester (don’t know anything about it except what I’ve seen on the website). The staff there say it’s about a 10 minute walk. When Paradise Pier opened up I made a reservation there too just to have another option and thinking it might be more fun and closer. But after reading this article, I wonder if I should just stick with the original plan? Thanks for any advice!
Storytellers is the best. We always loved eating there when we would go to Disneyland often! I can’t recommend it enough.
There are so many hotels off-property to stay at where you can walk to Disneyland. Not worth it paying the price for Paradise Pier! My favorite closed a few years ago, but there are SO many along Harbor and Katella you can take your pick and save a ton of money.
I think we’re basically in agreement – specifically, I’m more on blaming the state for the confusion than on Disney’s wording.
Yes, that’s the doc. Same thing here, too: https://covid19.ca.gov/safer-economy/
Under Amusement Parks > Orange County, it just says “In-state visitors only”, with no qualifiers about out-of-state guests. Nowhere in any of the official written guidance does it mention the allowance for out-of-state guests, even on the updated Travel Advisory cited on that link you posted.
The whole thing was kind of bizarre. Sea World saw a potential loophole in the updated guidance last month and ran with it. Shortly thereafter, Disney announced they weren’t doing that. CDPH then put out a surprise press statement agreeing with Sea World’s interpretation. Shortly thereafter, Disney reiterated that they weren’t doing that.
I think most of us expected the state to say something like “vaccinated out-of-state guests will be allowed as of [date two weeks from now]” or some such, to give the parks time to prepare. But to have it happen via press statement at 2pm on a random Tuesday didn’t make a lot of sense.
I’ll admit: I haven’t seen what was actually given to the parks, but I understand that they got it. Having said that, the fact that Sea World, Universal, and Disney are handling the situation in completely different ways (Sea World: all out-of-state vaccinated okay, Universal: only over-16 vaccinated okay, Disney: none of the above) suggests that it was in-and-of-itself unclear or open-worded. (I’ll note that one guest said they spoke to someone at Disney who claimed that the company had not received any guidance from the state on the matter and were continuing to follow the written guidelines to the letter – ie, no out-of-state residents. No idea if that was correct, though.) It reminded me a little of the times last year when CDC said one thing and CDC PR said something else – made me wonder if something was up. It shouldn’t be a big deal to update the official guidance.
Honestly, I have an unfounded suspicion that the three parks (and Legoland) are following this in a way that best fits their business needs. (Disney’s good on attendance for now, Universal is busy and gets more out of an adult ticket, Legoland and Sea World are happy to take anyone.)
I don’t blame anyone for feeling confused about the whole thing. But, like I said, I think that’s more about the state being unclear than anything on Disney’s end.
California’s guidance for amusement parks has been a little bit messy, which is why there’s so much confusion. All of the official guidance for theme parks still says “In-state residents only” with no allowances, so Disney’s statement is factually accurate. The allowances for out-of-state guests are partly coming from guidance being given directly to the parks, and partly from a clarification from CDPH’s PR.
Essentially what happened was that the state indicated they would look away as long as they checked for proof of vaccination. But there’s no requirement from the state that the parks have to accept out-of-state guests – it’s totally up to them.
I know I’m splitting hairs a little. But that’s the issue – the state is allowing it, but not requiring it.
Universal is taking the state’s statement so literally that they’re entirely excluding out-of-state children under the age of 16, since they can’t be vaccinated (and can’t show proof). From Universal’s T&Cs: “Government guidelines requiring out-of-state visitors to be fully vaccinated for COVID-19 in order to visit the park do not contain an exception for children under age 16, who are not yet eligible to be vaccinated for COVID-19. Therefore, at this time, we can only welcome out-of-state visitors age 16 and over.”
Disney’s plans clearly didn’t account for out-of-state guests, so I don’t blame them for saying no – especially since it feels like they’re getting ready for if/when the restrictions change on June 15th (ie, reopening Paradise Pier).
Just so we’re on the same page, the document I’m citing in this post (and in my previous reply to you) is here: https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CID/DCDC/CDPH%20Document%20Library/COVID-19/Dimmer-Framework-September_2020.pdf
I don’t doubt there has been more clarification on expectations given directly to the parks (and it sounds like you have inside knowledge on this), but I think it’s fairly reasonable as a potential guest to read California’s public-facing guidance and draw the conclusion that fully vaccinated persons from out of state may visit or attend activities or events that are restricted to in-state visitors–because that’s a direct line from the guidance.
With that said, I don’t fault Disney for their approach. California’s guidance is riddled with internal contradictions and info scattered across multiple websites. It’s confusing, and reasonable people or businesses could reach differing conclusions based upon what guidelines they read.
Tom, I have a family vacation planned to Disneyland for the beginning of September 2021. Do you anticipate that Disneyland will relax their mask policy and allow for masks to come down while taking pictures (and socially distanced) by then like WDW did? I am taking my kids and I want to be able to look back on pictures and see their faces.
1) Disney used similar capacity verbiage about the Grand Californian reopening when they announced it. It’s still in use on the hotels page on Disneyland’s website:
“The Hotels of the Disneyland Resort welcome Guests once again, with a phased reopening. Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa and The Villas at Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa are open with reduced capacity. Disney’s Paradise Pier Hotel is expected to reopen on June 15, 2021 with reduced capacity. The Disneyland Hotel will reopen at a later date.”
Speculation has been that it’s been mostly about staffing, given the longer closure.
2) The note about California’s guidelines for out-of-state visitors is untrue.
While the top-line guidance is that out-of-state vaccinated can participate in activities that are limited to CA residents – the rules for those activities require that those places check for proof of vaccination. It’s an option for them – they can accept vaccinated people as long as they check for proof. But the state is not requiring them to do so.
Disney doesn’t have to take vaccinated out-of-state guests, and is fully in-line with state guidelines in not doing so.
(Speculation is that Disney didn’t have the manpower to fulfill the guideline, and the headaches involved weren’t worth the effort for them since they’re already close to the allowed capacity with CA residents alone. It’s a much bigger undertaking for Disney than it would be at Sea World, Universal, or Legoland – especially since Disney is more popular with out-of-state guests. For example, the rules also require that children 2-16 show proof of a negative COVID test in order to attend. There’s no reason for them to deal with that if they don’t have to.)
1) Thanks for pointing that out; I stand corrected.
2) I see verification/proof of vaccination for other sectors in the guidelines, but not for theme/amusement parks. Perhaps I’m missing it, or it should be inferred based on the definitions section–but it also looks like the proof could be for triggering the capacity bonuses elsewhere. In practice, none of the other theme parks are actually checking vaccination status or residency, so it seems like the onus is on the visitor under the guideline.
I’m currently at knotts hotel for reopening. 100$. 5 min walk to park. Great staff. Very clean.. I feel extremely underrated. Try it….. season ticket 101$. Gives you discount and free parking. …. 100$, location, clean, nice staff, love this value
Bestwester across the street. Under 200$. Probably same distance to Disneyland as grandC.. and great rewards system. I paid 150$. After my 25$ free gift card.. normal free breakfast also. Currently grab and go. Water, fruit, and granola bar. I have stay at nearly every location around land.. bestwester directly across from park crosswalk is the best deal. When you factor walk, price, and everything..
The Paradise Pier Hotel is a Holiday Inn with Disney prices. And the only advantage of walking across the street into the Grand Californian and entering DCA through the Grad entrance was taken away when Disney locked out everyone except those staying at the Grand. Stay at the Grand if you can, Disneyland Hotel when it opens or the Hyatt Regency OC with its new rooms! We always enjoy the Hyatt but you need to drive your car or take their shuttle to Disney unless you are a big walker!
The Paradise Pier Hotel should be removed when the theme park expansions are planned and built. It’s in the way of future development and it’s an ugly hotel.
Thank you for this article, much better than Paradise Pier Hotel!
Tom, I have a question. I’m planning a trip. If I book Spirit Airlines, wait to print my boarding pass at the airport, incurring a fee, realize I don’t have the right credit card and have to speak to an actual person, incurring a fee, pay for five pieces of luggage, all carry-on, purchase The Big Seatâ„¢ï¸, buy all kinds of snacks and drinks on a one hour flight, and get suckered into signing up for the Spirit Airlines Bank of Americaâ„¢ï¸ credit card, if I do all that, my question is, is that a better value than staying at the Paradise Pier Hotel?
Also, fact check, you say that restaurants won’t initially reopen at the Paradise Pier Hotel, but it never had any.
Yes.
We switched to the Flex Pass our last go around and we LOVED it! I agree, this is what they should build off of. It took a tiny bit more planning, but the price point and ability to control crowds seemed to hit a sweet spot. We enjoyed the system along with the Max Pass option so much. Bummer we only got about 8 months out of it. Hoping that’s the direction they head.
I went ahead and booked six nights at ‘The Anaheim Hotel’ in mid-July last week, using the great deals at Get Away Today and Southwest Airlines’ 50th anniversary. This will be my first trip to Disney Land and I’m really hoping for a repeat of the super-low crowds I got to taste at Disney World last July. I keep watching each day with baited breath, hoping that Annual Passes won’t return before my trip, but…even if they do, I paid the little bit extra to be allowed to cancel or move my trip dates. I’d really love to stay at Grand Floridian…but having a near-week long Disney trip for less than 2k was just too tempting to pass up. After all, I have to save all my money for the Galactic Starcruiser next year.
Vaguely related, but I wondered if you might know…if you book a 4-day ticket through Get Away Today and then want to upgrade it to a 5-day ticket, do you get a new ticket code after you do? I want to start making my park pass reservations but I don’t want to end up stuck…
“if you book a 4-day ticket through Get Away Today and then want to upgrade it to a 5-day ticket, do you get a new ticket code after you do?”
I don’t know the answer to that. I’d suggest contacting them via email or phone–they’re a family run business and great with customer service. Hope you have a great trip!
So, Tom, tell us what you REALLY think about Paradise Pier !
Seriously though, We did stay there WAY back before Disney owned it. Can’t remember the price, but the value was OK at that point. For that stay they upgraded us to the larger room on the top floor and it was nice and roomy.
But since then we stayed in GCH and got really spoiled by the quality of the lobby, and the proximity. Now my wife won’t stay anywhere else.
I’m confused with all the negativity on Paradise Pier! I’ve stayed several times at the Paradise Pier and we’ve had nothing but great experiences there. I’m not saying that I don’t prefer DL hotel or Grand Californian but I don’t see anything wrong with the hotel at all. Just my opinion I guess â€â™€ï¸
Paradise Pier Hotel is okay, I guess. In my view, it’s neither a great Disney hotel nor a great real world hotel, but is priced like it’s both.
That’s a very tough sell for me given its location–near two great Disney hotels and multiple very good real world hotels. Many of the latter are newer, about one-third or less the nightly price of Paradise Pier Hotel, closer to the parks, and have objectively better amenities.
No one would ever talk about Paradise Pier Hotel if it were still the (non-Disney) Pan Pacific Hotel.
So Tom, I’m thinking about a week long stay at Paradise Pier! Thoughts?!?! Haha! 😉 I have to agree with you, that would be the last hotel on my list. While I’d love to stay at the Grand Californian or the Disneyland Hotel, some day, it’s just too much money so we stay at the Fairfield just across the street from the parks. MUCH better pricing. I’m hoping the Blue Bayou is open for our “Grad Nite” trip in June! I’m not real big on the food but the atmosphere is great and I’m loving the new booze option! Thanks for all the info!
Tom should consider writing a blog post ranking the 10 worst values (rip-offs) in all the Disney parks. Would Paradise Pier Hotel score the number one spot? Grand Floridian has gotta be on that list somewhere.
The fundamental flaw in Disney’s pricing strategy is that it’s competing against places like the Fairfield Inn Marriott which is a substantially shorter walk to the theme parks than Paradise Pier Hotel, and hundreds of dollars cheaper. Unlike in Florida, the Anaheim theme parks are routinely open until midnight, so the Anaheim visitor just isn’t spending as much time enjoying the amenities of the hotel. For me, it’s just a place to sleep.
Dino-Rama would be #1 on such a list. Yes, I realize that it’s “free,” but time is money, and it takes a good 2 minutes to walk through that land! 😉
How are they opening reservations for future dates to the parks? I have plans to go in October and those reservations are not yet open. Is it a sixty days out sort of situation or are they opening them in groups?
60 days out on a rolling basis. I’d expect reservation “refills” around the time when Orange County hits yellow and/or when California fully reopens on June 15.
Why in gods gods green earth would they open paradise pier instead of DL hotel ? DVC construction? I would still choose DL hotel with jackhammers rockin throughout the day
DVC construction (and hopefully other enhancements to DLH) are my guess. Even last summer, the plan was to open GCH first, followed by PPH, and DLH at a later date.